No more riverbanks
by kiose
Summary: Gray & Erza's relationship it's not just about riverbanks & a childhood memory, it's about trust & friendship built over years. Collection of one-shots following the prompts from the Grayza week at tumblr with a bit of a twist. GRAYZA.
1. 1st Prompt: Memories

AN-My first published story in english. Yay us :D!  
I tried to write the prompts from the grayza week as different from the other submissions as I could. Hope I made a good job at that. I also hope you find this entretaining. I'll see you guys at the end of the page ;D.

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Train of Memories

The train ride was painfully slow. Due to the heavy snow falling outside, the vehicle wasn't running at full speed & the train cars were unusually gelid.

Moreover a young Erza Scarlet had to cope up with her freezing piece of armor & a certain ice mage that just made everything worse.

She might as well take off her frozen armor but she wasn't really eager to part with her shielding metal outfit & deal with the feeling of vulnerability that came with her armor-less status.

Her ice-cold companion would have to be the one to give in. She had to ask nicely first though.

"You're cold. Stop it" Ezra's request sounded more like a demand thanks to her harsh tone.

"W-what did you expect? I'm an ice mage, I should be cold" Gray answered trying to sound tough but failing a little by stuttering at the very start. Erza really intimidated him to no end.

"I know that, but right now you're overdoing it" she accused.

"I can't control it" he replied.

That wasn't a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either and she could see right through it.

"That's not true" she accused. "Right now you're as cold as a dead body; it's not funny"

"H-hey, that's mean…and I'm not trying to be funny!" Gray defended.

Erza saw he was being honest, but didn't back down with the interrogatory.

"Why are you giving off so much _glacial air_, anyway?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry, it happens when I feel uneasy" Gray answered clearly uncomfortable.

"Well, stop feeling uneasy, then" she ordered.

"I wish it was that easy" he hoped.

"If you can't control it then don't sit so close to me" she declared with an annoyed voice.

"Sorry" he apologized honestly.

To prove he was genuinely sorry he stood up to sit in the seat in front of her.

In spite of him being an ice mage, the weather was unusually rough for him to handle & he wasn't wearing anything aside from his underwear, which didn't help much to fight the cold.

He was unable to control the violent quiver that shook his body.

"An ice mage shivering? That's quite the sight" Erza mentioned amused.

"S-shut up, even as an ice mage I'm just a normal human being, who can get chilly from time to time" he stuttered not out of shyness but because of his trembling frame.

He brought his knees up to his chest trying to warm his body at least a little more. Even with his ability to endure insanely low temperatures this was a bit overdoing it, he was just 9 years old; for an ice mage as young as him this conditions were extreme.

By that time, Erza had already equipped a thick blanket to add over her clothed body to withstand the hostile weather.

"I thought you liked the cold" she muttered while feeling some sympathy for the shivering boy in front of her.

"Uh…eh-I…I like it, but this is a bit too much" he stammered thanks to the cool air filling his lungs.

She was aware that the weather was freaking cold. Especially since she was using all the shirts that could fit under her armor & a blanket to cover her, yet she was shivering as much as him who wasn't wearing anything excepting his underwear.

But, nonetheless, she wasn't about to let slip the fact that he had stripped & lost his clothes even if she tried nearly every day to beat that terrible habit out of him.

"Serves you right for always stripping, pervert" she retorted snuggling into the quilt.

Gray felt like crying; Erza was being really cruel right now & he couldn't find the courage to try his hand at a reply as it was.

Instead of the rude reply she was expecting from him she received an honest answer she wasn't really anticipating.

"I can't help it, it's something I do subconsciously" he half spoke half yelled, while his shaking voice revealed how vulnerable he really was.

The weakness he showed her gave her goose bumps that had nothing to do with the weather.

"My teacher tried to teach me to be one with the cold, I know she didn't mean that I should take my clothes everywhere, I don't like losing my clothes or being considered a pervert at all, but still, every time I feel the chill air in my skin I k-kind of feel closer to her" he muttered softly with so much tenderness as if recalling the happy times he spent with his teacher.

The authenticity in his voice struck a chord inside Erza. He was freezing; he was actually freezing. It was the first time she had seen the young boy fighting the cold. Even when he could endure temperatures that normal people couldn't he was still a little boy. He was only human.

"You seem to be freezing, would you like to share?" she started awkwardly holding up the edges of the heavy fabric. She had absolutely no idea how to invite him to join her under the blanket.

"It's okay; I'm an ice mage, right? T-this should be nothing to me" he replied while hugging himself tighter, he tried to look okay but he couldn't restraint his body reactions like the uncontrollable shivering or how pale his skin was turning, at least he wasn't sneezing, for now.

"The blanket is big enough for the two of us..." she offered clumsily.

He shook his head in a rigid fashion; his muscles were probably as stiff as stone due to the coldness.

"If I can't stand this weather my deceased teacher will be disappointed" he managed to choke persistently.

But Erza was having none of it. It was hard enough to open to him as it was. He didn't need to make things more difficult for her.

"Would you please stop being stubborn & accept that you are cold?" she commanded harshly.

Gray flinched a bit at her scary tone. But her face had this worried look that made him trust her.

Reluctantly he stood up from his seat & sat next to her. He moved closer to cover himself with the blanket she offered him to share.

He felt her tremble when his icy feet came in contact with the side of her thigh & he tried his best to not give off any more frosty air.

He cuddled next to her & even if she felt him shiver when his bare shoulder touched the biting metal of her shoulder pad she didn't hear him complaining.

A light smile graced her lips.

She figured it was all-right to let her barriers down just for a little while, after all he had shown her weaknesses to her. He had bared himself in front of her not only physically but emotionally. He was her comrade, if something happened he would fight alongside her. It was ok, she decided; just this once.

When she unequipped her armor he looked surprised but didn't say a thing.

She cuddled closer, expecting to get some more warmth.

"Jeez, you are certainly cold as a dead body" she complained in a gentle whisper but didn't move away from him.

"Could you stop saying that? I'm not dead" he pleaded with a soft tired voice.

He sounded so caring & gentle it was inevitable for Erza to start harboring any kind of affection for the black haired boy.

That's right. He wasn't dead. Even if his body felt frosty there was this special warmness in him; the irrefutable proof that he was alive...

That was so many years ago, yet she still held the memory dear. It was the day she discovered the peculiar warmness of a living person; that comforting heat that relaxed her and intrigued her all the same.

Despite being an ice mage he used to have the most reassuring & pleasant warmth when he was alive.

And as she held his lifeless body against her chest she could still feel that special warmth, the proof that he was subsisting was no longer in him…just the lingering warmth that remained in his body as the proof that he was once alive...

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**A.N.- **When eating beef I used to joke around saying that if I let it cool down too much it would taste like corpse's behind...Till my mom told me that she once touched the corpse of a beloved someone. She said that when someone dies their body has this special warmth you can't describe easily but even if it's cold you know it was warm once. Even if they're not alive anymore you know they once were.

I nearly cried...& then started typing this to deal with the feeling of sadness that filled me in that moment. Hope you like it & I promise I won't write more angst like this anytime soon. There's too much sadness in the world to add up even more, but this was an exception cause even if it's sad I felt it had this unexplainable melancholic beauty to it.

Keep in tune for the rest of the prompts & if you got something to tell me do not hesitate to press that review button & type to your heart's content ;D.

Kiosé over & out


	2. 2nd Prompt: Tears

**A.N.- **I'm glad you guys liked the first oneshot...I made it with all the Grayza love in my heart :), but fear not my friends, I'm not doing other of those anguish thingies anytime soon, I make myself sad everytime I remotely write one :'(.

Thank you for your kind reviews that keep me running, and without further ado here's the next prompt. I'll be waiting for you guys at the end, 'kay? Enjoy!

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Moon Drip; tears from the moon

She didn't know what to do.

Countless times he said he couldn't handle her tears. He made everything within his reach to help her elude the agony and in the end he did exactly the necessary to cease the cascades leaking from her eyes.

However when it came to him; his tears, she didn't know what to do.

She had no recollection of seeing him cry.

It wasn't like he purposefully hid his emotions from her all the time...maybe it was only that he was always so discreet about it.

He showed himself to her as a strong man, with weaknesses nevertheless, but always tough enough to not let his flaws overexposed; the perfect balance.

Right now she understood why Gray seemed in pain whenever she cried. Even though, in the case at hand, she wasn't in any physical pain she felt it in her chest; constricting her heart every time another tear left his dark eyes to slide across either of his cheeks.

She felt incredibly low-spirited just by watching him sobbing quietly. Was this the pain he had to bear every time she cried?

She bore sadness herself, but none of it mattered to the scene before her eyes. All of her previous worries & grief died out at the sight of the ice mage in front of her.

Looking at 19-year old Gray she couldn't believe how much he looked like a little boy whimpering...except she possessed no memory of seeing him weep, even as a boy. He always seemed so headstrong…

She wondered if someone had actually seen him like this before; so hopeless, so shameless, so free; bent over with his hands and knees supporting his trembling body over the mud while he let the crystal rivers flow from his eyes to the ground beneath him.

He definitely couldn't care less if she was watching or even if she was judging him for letting anyone see his weakness.

She desperately tried to think of a way to erase the silver drops & replace them with Gray's smug trademark smile; still she could come up with nothing.

When it was the other way around she wouldn't allow anyone to help her and she would end up isolated mourning by herself till she could cry no more. That was usually enough for her.

Nonetheless she couldn't deny the secret yearning, buried in the depths of her being, where someone would find her & stay with her instead of leaving her in solitude.

But when it came to Gray...this was new to her...she felt at disadvantage here. Gray had seen her cry innumerable times but she hadn't seen Gray cry, not even once.

Even when she was supposed to be the most shielded of them both.

She was running on instinct here so she was more than nervous. But she wouldn't admit she was a tad scared too. There was nothing justifiable about been scared for this. Gray was her friend, her companion, her teammate, her guildmate... If she admitted she was scared of interaction with him she was definitely lost.

She got near him & as careful as she could she slid her arm over his shoulders & lifted his torso. She was starting to regret this, but there was no backing down now that Gray had noticed her presence; his shoulders tensing & relaxing in the split of a second when she came in contact with him.

"_C'mon Erza, you can do this, don't blow it"_ she mentally encouraged herself.

She pulled his body towards her with the complete decision she managed to collect on the spur of the moment.

She was doing _this_; there was no way out of this one.

Just as she heard a metallic clank and heard Gray groan in pain did she was reminded she was still wearing her armor and had most likely crashed Gray's face against her breastplate. It wasn't the first time something like that happened to her, after all, her armor was a second skin to her & she tended to forget she was wearing it at all. But right now that common mistake bothered her to no end.

She was trying to help her friend as much as she could to heal his heartache. She wasn't looking forward to give him more pain at all.

Erza unequipped her armor & tried apologizing; except words just wouldn't come out when she tried to speak her thoughts.

That's when she felt the tears, _his tears_, that hadn't stop, dampening her blouse.

The first thing that struck a chord in her was the fact that Gray tears were hot, even if his body was really cool.

She fished her handkerchief out of the pocket in her skirt & followed the automatic response from her body without halting to question anything. Her hand reached his cheeks & cleaned the dampness from his face.

While drying sides of his face she tried to recall the tears he had shed in the past, in those moments where she didn't see them yet she could tell he was shedding them; when all she could see were the _traces_ of them but never the actual thing.

He wasn't one to hide his weakness. He exposed himself exactly as he was; he displayed his imperfection & his fortitude for everyone to see, while he managed to keep his pride & dignity.

He didn't mind if people saw his emotions or his bare body; it was all the same to him.

She may not bear much conscience about it but she really admired him, for that was the thing that made her struggle more than anything else.

Name something, anything, & you could have the certainty that Erza would be good at it; even the best, perhaps.

Notwithstanding, this was like the exception to the rule. Erza couldn't simply be good at baring herself in front of anyone.

She observed him with the expression of a statue; chagrin tainting her façade at her incapacity to show her feebleness without regrets, all the while he replied with a see-through demeanor that hid nothing from her.

That's how she was able to see in his features the moment when all the sadness evaporated from him to be replaced with genuine concern.

After clearing his throat he talked with firm voice that betrayed no sorrow. "I'm sorry Erza; I've been bawling like a little kid, making you worry while you are sad too"

Erza got astonished. He had noticed; even when she was trying with all her might to hide her anguish inside of her armor.

His hand came in contact with hers & all thoughts left her mind.

Suddenly her handkerchief was no longer between her fingers but being rubbed along her cheekbones, that's when she noticed her handkerchief was being used to clean the tears she didn't know she was shedding.

Halfheartedly she tried to stop his advances, but it was unexpectedly evident she really didn't want him to stop. He knew that, so he didn't stop. His eyes were watery & the traces of sadness were still clear in his face, but he had no intention of leaving the stream of angst get through him.

Those tears...she had let her guard down because of that. She only wanted them to stop from pouring, but now...

She half-guessed half-believed that his tears were unexpectedly similar to the Moon Drip.

Just like the tears from the moon were able to de-spell about any kind of magic, regardless of its strength; Gray's tears were able to des-equip every layer of armor laid in front of Erza despite of the quantity or the impenetrability.

And she found out she didn't mind it at all.

He was truly something.

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**A.N.** - I swear I wrote the word "tears" so many times this was embarrassing to read out loud, but then I tried to replace them with so much zest it became ridiculous, so in the end I left the word as much as my perfectionist self would let me. Hope it doesn't bothers you as much as it bothered me :S.

This prompt was done thanks to Kamynari's idea, she suggested a story were Gray was the one crying instead of the cliché of Erza's tears...everything else came from that. So oodles of thanks to her if she ever reads this xD.

Now hold your pants guys, 'cause the next prompt is Trust, the almighty trust. My favorite prompt of the whole week ;D. So I will most likely write 2 oneshots for that one...just because Grayza is Trust for me :'D.  
Even if you don't like the pairing feel free to drop me a message or whatever I love to hear from you, guys. Till next prompt. Hope you liked this one as much as I liked writting it ;D.

Kiosé over & out


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